Just Think About It

 

For those of you who have followed me for several years know that white shape below the eye is “Henry,” a meningioma I’ve lived with for several years. Still not giving me serious problems, but we take his picture once a year just to be certain. Because of Henry, I have an interest in brains slightly higher than the average person.  Also, because of my Mom and her Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, I’m interested in research in communication with people who have limited speech.

Thus my interest in NPR’s May 12, 2021 “Man Who Is Paralyzed Communicates By Imagining Handwriting.” Clicking on the title will take you to the article where you’ll learn this and more:

The man was able to type with 95% accuracy just by imagining he was handwriting letters on a sheet of paper, a team reported Wednesday in the journal Nature.

"What we found, surprisingly, is that [he] can type at about 90 characters per minute," says Krishna Shenoy of Stanford University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

The device would be most useful to someone who could neither move nor speak, says Dr. Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford and co-director, with Shenoy, of the Stanford Neural Prosthetics Translational Laboratory.

"We can also envision it being used by someone who might have had a spinal cord injury who wants to use email," Henderson says, "or, say, a computer programmer who wants to go back to work."

Both Henderson and Shenoy have a proprietary interest in commercializing the experimental approach used to decode brain signals.

That will be awesome for communication for the handicapped – but every one of us has an even more awesome capability. We can talk with our Lord in our mind, knowing that He hears and understands before we finish. Jesus gave us the example, described both in Matthew 6:9 and in Luke:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. (Luke 11:1-4 KJV)

How do you envision God as you speak to Him? A distant white-haired patriarch as painted by Michelangelo, reaching from a great distance to touch the finger of His creation? That's not what He is, was, or ever will be. He wants us to be in touch with Him. He requires of us that we walk with Him:

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6:8 KJV)

He did walk with the first couple He created. We read of that in the midst of their seperation:

And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. (Genesis 3:8 KJV)

I remember how difficult it was for my Mom to communicate with us. ALS removed her ability to talk, and her writing was difficult - slow and shaky. Her mind was still quick, and we would have loved being part of an experimental approach of decoding brain signals. I know it is difficult for people to experiment with speaking to a God they have yet to trust.

Many years ago there was a blogger who knew she was the 100th sheep in Luke 15. The blog no longer exists under the URL I have, but I remember her telling how God did not exist. At lunch with a friend who was a believer, she pulled what I call a Gideon - asking God:

. . . then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. (Judges 6:17 KJV)

I never did learn what she asked God to give as His sign that He heard her - but it communicated to her that God did want her to walk with Him. Her blog was a blessing to me - just as I hope this one is to you as I pray for your ability to communicate with God.